Is this enough?

[The1990club]

Hi

I budget the family finances and I allocate x amount for the following pcm; food (including weekly food shop, school dinners, packed lunches and food for my husband who works away so eats seperate from the family),fun stuff ( days out/ eating out/ disposable income), anything we need to buy or pay for such as school uniform/dentist/christmas/ birthday gifts/ new kettle if it breaks etc.

This money does not need to cover holidays/ childcare/ fuel or car running costs.

We are family of 4, 2 children 4 and 9. I allocate £850 and on paper it seems enough but we struggle ( and I cant allocate more!)

Any advice

If you think you can manage on the 850 then it’s worth a try maybe, but don’t beat yourself up if you need to dip into the 300 you put aside. Why not try and allow yourself to dip IF needed, but try to pretend it’s not there as best you can. No harm. And best of luck 🤞

Thank you this is also a good approach x

That would be enough for us. Just myself and two DSs; I only spend roughly £300 pcm on food. We don't eat out or get takeaways.
I think £850 is plenty for food and other emergency expenses for four.

So you’re presumably spending huge amounts a month on your “massive renovation” but no mention of the amounts in any of your figures?

You’re in £75k debt (separate to mortgage) according to your other posts…. That should be top priority for any disposable amounts @The1990club

It is miserable if you feel that you don't have any treats. Is there anyway either of you could increase your earning power? Instead of eating out, could you have a meal in instead when children are in bed? I'd involve your husband in this decision as well OP. Could leisure be more things that do not cost anything.? Are you living in relative comfort despite the renovations? If not the need to treat yourselves would for me, feel more necessary. I would not lend money.

Yeah I know, like I said, a lot of regret. 30k of that clears in under 4 years. We replaced the childcare costs ( ended in September) with debt for the renovation ( after 6 months of me deliberating over it and was a really really difficult decision to make)

We can afford the debt though- £1400 odd income left is ok, but its just not enough save with it AND live any standard of life ( like i was trying to do by splitting it £950/£430) We are not lavish people, I don't buy new clothes, get my hair done etc. My children get everything what they need and don't miss out. Hopefully we will be able to make overpayments if I can go full time in a couple of years but it isnt achieveable now.

Posted on here because DH doesn't offer any advice really and my best friend is in a worse boat so I don't want to complain to her.

We are not living in comfort, I have just got the heating back, still no kitchen or running hot water in the house. Still living in a caravan (2 months now) so we have eaten out/ had takeaways more than we ever would have recently. Normally that kind of thing is a treat, as I do like cooking and baking anyway. Im crying for my kitchen really. Again days out are generally cheap or free too

Honestly I have never asked anyone nor plan on asking for money to borrow. It would need to be very extreme for me to do that and truthfully, I'd probably just sell the house if we lost our jobs. Its not in negative equity. I pray we never come to that. I have insurance for illness.

How are you managing to pay back massive debts
and fund a massive renovation
and save?

It's tight.

The obvious point to change is this...

husband needs about £30 ( he is home some of the week and can cook so doesn't need to eat out)

Your DH can take a sandwich, banana and bag of multipack crisps when he is out

The renovation is part of the debt, which is a loan. After all our bills are paid, including the debts, we are left with £1400- £1500. This is why im asking if £950 is enough to live off, because I want to save but the £950 seems to go nowhere

He is a lorry driver he does need to buy meals, he sleeps out of the house 3/4 nights a week

This is such a weird thread! It might as well be made up numbers, each post contradicts the previous.

It really doesn't.

It looks like your budget is quite tight.
Is that a 4 weekly or monthly budget? If it's monthly then you haven't accounted for the 5 week months.
If I were you I would list every single transaction that you expect to cover from the £850 and see if it is realistic, including presents for birthday parties, teacher gifts, school trips etc.
The trouble with a long term self imposed tight budget is that it is very easy to get fed up and then massively splurge (a bit like breaking a diet). Life shouldn't just be a long miserable slog. I always try and include a stated budget for fun. Even £50 a month, no guilt, fun money can make a tight budget seem less harsh. It can be part of the £300 "other" money in your budget if you feel there is room.

Well no mention of it being temporary in the OP and you also said you canr allocate more. Which now turns out to not be true...

You made out like you were on the breadline I was going to suggest checking benefits or charities that could help. Which also turns out to be false as you're funding a 'massive renovation'. So rich people's problems.

Wow.

I don't know how temporary 4 years is. When living hand to mouth it feels such a long way away.

I could allocate more ( in 6 months or so)but would have no savings, which I don't have now but will be able to start in 6 months. Obviously this is not a good position to be in, especially with considerable debt!

I just wanted to know from people how much is reasonable to spend on the expenses I listed in my first post. In order for me to know if I am being unreasonable to expect £850/£950 to stretch to what I am expecting it to.

I haven't asked about help or where to get support from in any of my posts!

I think it’s tight to assume you can continue with the same budget for 4 years, as council tax, energy, water costs will likely rise. Your children’s appetite will increase significantly.

Is £30 realistic? You are only allowing £7.50 per day for meals and drinks. That barely covers a meal deal and a coffee.
The last thing you need is to set yourself up to fail.

I think you shouldn’t be saving money if you are in massive debt - surely the bed thing to do is to pay the debt off as quickly as possible? So personally I’d do the best I can each month and then send everything extra straight to the debt if you can.

we are a family of 4 and that’s nowhere near enough for how we are living now but if one of us lost our job or there was a massive disaster then I think we could just about manage if we really changed our lifestyle (my daughter is a dancer so it’s silly money on all that). It wouldn’t leave a lot of flex so I can see why it’s challenging.

He cooks in the lorry and takes food from home with him too. He buys food from the supermarket. Even before all of this its always been whatever has spent. I havrnt capped it he just seems to spend that amount. We don't buy meal deals/ takeaway coffees with our budget!

No that seems extremely low to me, OP 4 yours might be temporary to you but it’s a huge chunk of your children’s childhoods. £850 to include all food and fun money? It doesn’t sound like you’ll be having much fun!

But what's the point in having savings when you're servicing all that debt and not able to cover basics? It's a backwards way around of managing your finances.

I totally see what you are saying but I think personally for mindset it’s important to have a bit of accessible cash. I think if @The1990club can save for a few months and have an EF of 1500 that would put minds at ease for anything unexpected as such. The she could throw the money at the debt.